布政司署
香港下亞厘畢道
本署檔號 Our Ref.:
來函檔號 Your Ref.:
R. A. J. Bunten Esq.,
HKD,
FCO.
Dow Rod
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026/6
GOVERNMENT SECRETARIAT
LOWER ALBERT ROAD
HONG KONG
14 July 1993
22/7
Mr Mom's f
Busben our Mr Braber Mis 5/5
میرم
*
-Ju 21/7
ડ
ડ
Group Tours From China:
Review Meeting, Shenzhen, 9 July 1993
You will recall the Group Tours scheme from your own time here. This brings groups of Chinese visitors to Hong Kong on organised trips, to visit friends and relatives, and increasingly for shopping and sight-seeing. Since the programme began in 1983, 1.05 million Chinese residents have come to Hong Kong through this scheme. (For comparison, the Two Way Permit scheme has seen an almost identical number of visitors over the same period.)
2.
The influx of visitors has grown steadily. The scheme currently brings a daily average of 15.8 groups to Hong Kong, each with 48 members. 3 PRC travel agents China Travel Service (Hong Kong), Guangdong Tours and Huamin Tours of Fujian - enjoy an oligopoly in this lucrative business. Demand far outstrips the supply of places and is growing ever more rapidly. Applicants for tour places from some parts of China have to wait up to 8 months before their turn comes.
3.
As you know, we review the scheme formally with the Chinese roughly once every 18 months. I duly led an HKG delegation, incorporating colleagues from Security Branch and Immigration Department, to Shenzhen on 9 July for the fifth such
The one day format was a break, at our insistence, meeting. with the tradition of using the meeting as a pretext for several days of tourism at public expense: the last review was held in Kunming, with a 2 hour meeting wrapped in a 5 day visit.
I'm all for VFM in public spending, but, ů Have a risk that HK chamère officials might be alienated by the removal of parks which HKG con mechi alford ?
4.
For me, the Shenzhen review provided a gentle induction into negotiating with the Chinese on behalf of HKG. The scheme has, as you know, been successful and relatively trouble-free. Problems that do arise have generally been resolved quickly. The Chinese carefully vet all potential participants: very few attempt to stay behind in Hong Kong (there are only 51 outstanding cases, over the whole ten years). The scheme's main feature has been its steady expansion, but even here, the Chinese agree with us that this should take place in a gradual and planned way.
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5.
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2 -
As expected, the main Chinese request in Shenzhen was for a further expansion, of 3.5 additional groups per day. We said that we would be prepared to look sympathetically at this. We had no objection in principle provided that the increase could be organised in a way which did not put unbearable strain on our resources (such as immigration manpower at border crossing points). We were also able to give more or less positive responses to a number of other more detailed Chinese proposals, e.g. on points and methods of entry.
6.
There was only one more difficult request, and that had been well telegraphed beforehand. This was that an additional Chinese travel agency, Yazhou Tours, be allowed entry to the oligopoly. Our main problem with this is that we believe Yazhou to be under the control of the NCNA itself, and that the NCNA is in this way trying to get its hands on a slice of what is now a very profitable cake. At a time when concern in Hong Kong is growing about the spreading commercial (and, it is widely believed, sometimes corrupt) activities of Chinese officials and official organisations, we cannot be seen to acquiesce in covert private sector activities by the NCNA.
7.
Yang Youyong (NCNA Foreign Affairs Department Deputy Director, who led the Chinese team), argued that Yazhou would be well equipped to handle tours catering principally for family members of Chinese officials and state enterprise personnel serving in Hong Kong. In any case, we needed "a new tributary" to handle the growing flow of visitors under the scheme. For our part, we had decided beforehand not to confront Yang on Yazhou's status, principally because our suspicions, though well-founded, are not provable at this stage (we are investigating further). We therefore countered that proliferation among Chinese operators could make it harder to resist growing pressure from Hong Kong travel agents to enter the market: we preferred broadening the existing river to allowing new tributaries. This had the desired effect, immediately causing the existing 3 PRC travel agencies, all represented on the Chinese team, to say how concerned they would be at such a prospect. In the end, we simply agreed to keep the question of new participants under review.
Comment
8.
In short, an innocuous occasion.
But also an
illustration that whatever the political climate and its consequences elsewhere (e.g. in the JLG), the Chinese have been happy enough to cooperate enthusiastically on schemes from which they derive profit.
Cc:
Yous
ever
Jon.
(John Ashton)
Deputy Political Adviser
A. R. Paul Esq., UKREP JLG, HK (for para. 8) Ms. Janet Rogan, Peking
RESTRICTED
CONFIDENTIAL
From
Director of Immigration
ReFMM
CR 3/349 Pt.16
in
Tel. No.
8293806
Date
05-07-93
MEMO
To
Deputy Political Advisor
4
Your Ref SCR
in
2/2071/78VII(TS6/83)
dated
Chinese Delegations Visiting Hong Kong
Further to my reference IMM/CR 3/349 Pt.16 of 25/10/1991
I enclose lists of Chinese groups having visited Hong Kong during the period April to Jun, 1993.
2.
You will note that there were a total of consisting of
3089 groups
13078 persons obtained visas at B.E. Peking. Further breakdowns are as follows :-
Groups
Persons
(A)
Visitor
(I)
Private Companies (including joint venture)
a) training & study purposes
b) business & commerical transactions
473
1934
1401
5685
c) exhibitions & ceremonies
3
19
(II)
d) cultural & sporting activities
e) social visit (spouses visiting PRC cadres
working in Hong Kong)
Educational Institutes
a) training
02616 RECEIVED INT
5
58
0
b) visiting scholars
c) study groups & research wo
14 JUL 1993
78
DESK OFFICER
REGISTRY
INDEX
PA
tion Taken
320
10
(III) PRC Control Enterprises
a) training & study purposes
28
239
b) business & commerical transactions
334
3175
c) exhibitions & ceremonies
2
9
d) cultural & sporting activities.
0
0
e) missions & delegations for official visits
0
0
0
0
G.F. 73C
f) social visit (spouses visiting PRC cadres
working in Hong Kong)
/ (VI)
CONFIDENTIAL #≈